Friday, September 5, 2014

Theodor Adorno, Introduction to Sociology

Introduction to Sociology distills decades of distinguished work in
sociology by one of this century's most influential thinkers in the
areas of social theory, philosophy, aesthetics, and music.

It
consists of a course of seventeen lectures given by Theodor W. Adorno in
May-July 1968, the last lecture series before his death in 1969.
Captured by tape recorder (which Adorno called "the fingerprint of the
living mind"), these lectures present a somewhat different, and more
accessible, Adorno from the one who composed the faultlessly articulated
and almost forbiddingly perfect prose of the works published in his
lifetime. Here we can follow Adorno's thought in the process of
formation (he spoke from brief notes), endowed with the spontaneity and
energy of the spoken word. The lectures form an ideal introduction to
Adorno's work, acclimatizing the reader to the greater density of
thought and language of his classic texts.

Delivered at the time
of the "positivist dispute" in sociology, Adorno defends the position of
the "Frankfurt School" against criticism from mainstream positivist
sociologists. He sets out a conception of sociology as a discipline
going beyond the compilation and interpretation of empirical facts, its
truth being inseparable from the essential structure of society itself.
Adorno sees sociology not as one academic discipline among others, but
as an over-arching discipline that impinges on all aspects of social
life.

Tracing the history of the discipline and insisting that
the historical context is constitutive of sociology itself, Adorno
addresses a wide range of topics, including: the purpose of studying
sociology; the relation of sociology and politics; the influence of
Saint-Simon, Comte, Durkheim, Weber, Marx, and Freud; the contributions
of ethnology and anthropology; the relationship of method to subject
matter; the problems of quantitative analysis; the fetishization of
science; and the separation of sociology and social philosophy.